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Mrs Justice Nicola Davies sent the jury of nine men and three women at Cardiff Crown Court out to consider their verdicts just after 3pm on Wednesday.

Elsie Scully-Hicks (Image: Press Association)

This morning they returned to unanimously find Scully-Hicks guilty of murder.

Paul Lewis QC, for the prosecution, told the jury at Cardiff crown court that Scully-Hicks lost his temper with Elsie and caused her “catastrophic injuries”.

Lewis said: “He shook her and he struck her head against some hard surface, or he used a hard object to hit her to the back of the head. She was just 18 months old. She was defenceless and vulnerable.”

The court heard that Scully-Hicks had complained in a series of texts that Elsie was a difficult child, describing her as “Satan dressed in a baby grow” and calling her a “psycho” and “monster”. He once wrote he was “ready to explode”.

In the months before the fatal attack, Scully-Hicks, 31, had physically abused Elsie on a number of occasions, causing broken bones and bruises.

You can read blow-for-blow coverage of the trial using the links below: